Courageous Choices Begin With Purpose
"There is a new world order for advertising developing in the wake of the global pandemic. As leaders, we need to make different choices for the brands and businesses we run. It takes courage to make these choices, and humility to change as we learn more."
– Kunal Gupta, CEO of Polar.
Kunal Gupta makes a great point. Change takes courage. We've all experienced those times when we need to dig deep within ourselves to persevere in the face of evolution, transition, or even upheavals of all that we know. There likely isn't a single individual reading this that hasn't needed to tap into that courage in the last few weeks especially. But it isn't always so easy. And in those times, we go back to purpose.
When facing uncertainty, a clearly defined purpose for our business becomes our backbone.
Starting Meshin Movement nearly 18 months ago took a great deal of courage and every day continues to challenge us with the unknown of what lies ahead. But we keep going. Our purpose guiding us to the next step, and the next.
With purpose clearly defined, we have preset "permission" on how to proceed, even in the face of challenge and adversity. We developed our purpose as a company--a team of two. It is clearly articulated as our guiding principle of operation. When we get stuck, we look at our purpose and find the way forward.
How we fulfill our purpose has changed and taken different forms. But when we come to those crossroads of needing to decide the next step, we ask ourselves a simple question, "If we do this, will we still be fulfilling our purpose?" This exercise has made tough calls between two very different co-founders easier. Our purpose being the voice of reason, the come back to center.
Especially in the midst change and evolution, one uniting purpose keeps everyone in the organization aligned, inspired and clear on how to approach the tough calls. Purpose gives us permission to persevere.
Courageous choices begin with Purpose.
__
More to come on the incredible partners who influenced our approach to purpose articulation as a critical element of brand strategy. Specifically; Grounded World, a brand and creative B-Corp, and Purpose & Performance Group, a performance development agency.